EVKnowsitall

Hey Katie- My wedding is on July 5th and I am flying down the morning of the third. We arranged it this way for several reasons- don't laugh at me but here they are: 1) I did not want to bake in the sun too many days before my wedding and be a sunburned bride. 2) My body reacts to travel so I didn't want to be sick before or on the wedding. 3) We figured the planning call would arrange most of the info and we would only need to meet coordinators a day or two before the wedding. 4) I'd rather be a worried nutcase bride to be for a small window of time and then enjoy the rest of my days at the resort with my friends and family. I know before my wedding I am going to be a basket case. Why prolong the agony? 5) I want to peacefully enjoy amenities like unlimited drinks and food- and I'm afraid to do it before and be bloated in my dress. Most of my reasons as you can see, are somewhat shallow haha but hey- they are valid issues of concern for me. I want to live the moment and if we are there too many days before, after the wedding we just go home. I would prefer to front load the wedding and celebrate all week long! LOL

Gooooood question. I want to trash my dress. My mom paid for it as my gift and it cost $2500 so EVERYONE is telling me I'm nuts. My fiancé originally was down until he decided to get a custom suit at $800 and now he refuses to trash his suit. I keep hearing from past brides and photographers that the dress rinses clean of the sand. The advice I have seen is to just rinse it immediately after the session and hang dry it. I thought about doing a separate dress- but it wouldn't look or feel the same. The point of a TTD is to have super awesome pics in your actual dress. I also considered getting a cheaply made duplicate look alike. This can be made in China. A few brides have done this. You send a picture of your dress and have it duplicated for relatively cheap- $300 or so. This is still a consideration but despite what people think- so is trashing my real dress. What am I saving it for? I didn't want to wear my mothers dress, how can I assume my future child will want mine? Why else do you need the dress to stay in perfect condition? I can't come up with a good enough reason to NOT trash the dress other than people telling me not to.

Hey MK- don't feel bad haha I was using the mobile version and quoted your post like 10 times and didn't even get to write what I wanted. The mobile version is still a little glitchy- or it might just be my iphone. Anywho- I can sort of see your ring from your icon. Vanessa B- why do you have to take it off? I have two jobs- I'm a teacher by day, bartender at night, so I take my ring off to bartend, otherwise it will get ruined. But my finger feels so naked without it and when its off, I constantly check my finger to see if its there. It's too big for my finger and I have to wear a ring guard, so I've gotten in the habit of "adjusting the ring" so much so that I even do it when its off.

Whats the charge for Theresa? I have heard good things about her as well. I heard she used to work directly for Paradisus before she decided to go independent.

I love Benjamin Adams as well. I'm debating on getting a pair from him. There's a pair I've been eyeing I forget the name of the style but they will be my just in case shoes. I was looking for something with a pop of color. But I love his shoes so I know if I find nothing else I love as much as his shoes, I'll just snatch em up. A bit on the pricey side though.

You're welcome ladies! Part of me still wishes we were going to Mexico still because DR doesn't have a CocoBongos I'm doing my bachelorette here at home.- well not quite- I'm going to Cape Cod I think- road tripping because it's cheaper and my friend has a connect there- her father in law is a harbor master there. Other than that- I can't really think of anything for my bachelorette- its not at the forefront of my mind but things like XPLOR and the party bus will certainly leave an impression and make guests feel like the whole week was epic lol Mexico flights also seem to cost less. As do the hotel stays. We switched because our guests complained- and I kind of wish we hadn't.

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Wedding Paper divas

XPLOR was $95 per person I believe and it includes a lunch buffet. The Jetski/ ATV package was also $90 ish. You can also pay a photographer there to snap pics. They take candids while you're in the water pretty neat. I believe CoCoBongo party bus was $75 a person but I'm not 100%

My fiance gave me a handmade gift a few valentines days past, and it was a book he made with pictures of us. He made the book himself- he works at an advertising agency and he printed the pages and bound the book and made the covers and everything. Its a small pocket size book which would be ideal. Seeing your book reminded me that he can make these! But he probably won't. I wanted him to do our invites and he didnt want to...he said he was too busy at work. What good is a fiance who works in the printing field and has access to all the materials if he can't make anything? LOL Anyway, these are super cute. If you don't have many guests its not too bad in way of costs- if you hit high numbers it gets a little pricey. But it's def more memorable. As we have already experienced with our invites (people put pictures of our invites on FB, Instagram, showed them off to friends, have them on their coffee tables) people enjoy things like this. I will definitely consider it. Thank you for the info- if my fiance won't make em, I'll just order them.

Yea I think the bus picked us up at 9 pm. I would say XPLOR is not an option on the same day for a squeeze. What we did was go jetskiing and atving- they picked us up from the hotel and we went jetskiing for an hour and then went on the atv's for an hour- but the whole thing takes a little longer because the van picks up other people at other hotels and and there's waiting involved- there is a bar though at the beach where you jetski with swings as seats. This was also arranged through Olympus. We got back to the hotel around 4 or 5 and showered, changed and went to eat dinner at one of the restaurants at the hotel and then the bus picked us up. We did XPLOR the next day- I remember because I was hungover like a mother and my fiance bet me I would not get my behind up to do XPLOR and I did. We went ziplining- hangover and all. XPLOR is an all day activity because the bus stops at multiple hotels- depending on which property you stay at, its a bit of a drive to the park and there are 4 activities but each one has multiple different courses/ tracks. You can zipline- but theres 3 different courses, there are two rivers to raft down etc. I would say if you want to do XPLOR as your main activity- pair it with a nice dinner and drinks at the bar or dance club at your resort. You can do XPLOR- come back to the suite for pedicures and spa and then go out. If you really want to do the bus- pair that with an early spa morning/ jetskis and atvinging and then cocobongos. XPLOR is fun for everyone to do. Perhaps all your guests would like to go together after the wedding? You would really need to wait to arrive at the hotel to plan it because I don't know when the pick up times are. When you get there, most hotels have an Olympus representative waiting in the lobby at an orange table. You can ask if you don't see him/her. Then they will coordinate everything for you. That's how we jam packed everything in.

Congrats! No really useful tips from me because I haven't done mine- I guess make sure you have your calculator in front of you and make sure everything you request is sent to you in an email so you have written contract so you don't discover hidden charges for anything. Down the road. So EXCITING! Congrats!

Great find. I almost bought these in teal from Zappos but they were certainly not $70- they were the full $200! Did you get them in this color? They do look great for a vintage feel.

Yup- Through Olympus- sorry I took so long to respond- I had to go into my archives on FB to find the photos haha. The guys are super nice too and they get all your drinks- you never have to leave the dance floor!

YESSSSSSS ITS SO MUCH FUN! Thats what I was talking about when I said I went on a bus tour that took us to three spots. We stopped at senor frogs, pink elephant, and Coco Bongos- We stood at the other spots for about an hour, hour and a half and stood at Coco Bongos for the rest of the time. They do an amazing show with trapeze artists, impersonators. I would recommend looking into the party bus because it was $75 per person for three stops at three different clubs/ lounges with all drinks included, door to door pick up and drop off at your hotel and the live show at Coco Bongos. I went with my fiance as a vacation and it was just him and I. I can only imagine how much fun it would be with my girls. I actually have pictures- We stood at Secrets Capri and initially wanted to get married there and the plan was to use the party bus for our bachelor/ bachelorette parties but we switched our destination to DR. I'll put the pics of Coco Bongos below- Its def a must if you like to party for a bachelorette: It's with Olympus Tours and you are looking for the Party Hopper bus for Cancun- That's the one that stops at Coco Bongo- there are other ones to other areas as well

Congrats Suzhen! I hope you'll post pictures of your wedding. It's close! 4 months away! I have the clock ticking down for ours as well. It feels like time is flying which makes me a little nervous because I want to make sure we can afford everything we want and we are really tight on our finances in order to pay for this all. Let me know how th call goes- ours will be in another month or so. Our wedding is July 5th. I'm getting nervous now because its so close and I want everything to be perfect- which I know is a tall, impossible order because something is bound to be a miss that day.